On Feb 16, 12:00*pm, sisu1a wrote:
It's true the Bio-Suit hasn't been tested in flight but neither has a
pressurized glider cockpit at altitudes above that which has been
achieved without pressurization. *It's not clear to me which will be
the better solution for flights above FL 500.

I bet the pressurized cockpit is waaay cheaper than bleeding edge
spacesuits... *but the suits are pretty darn neat, and will probably
cost a lot less to maintain/operate then a normal pressure suit in
addition to the obvious mobility advantages. The x-crossed mesh bits
of it remind me of the Predator (scifi alien)...

Does this mean the future is here? I also saw practical (1/2hr
duration...) jetpacks are now only a couple hundred grand, inc
training...

-Paul

No doubt the Bio-Suit would be extremely expensive - though possibly
no more so than mainstream suits. However, it's exactly the radical
kind of idea that is very hard to sell to conservative NASA engineers.

If I were with the Perlan Project, or someone who wanted to compete
with them, I'd approach the MIT Bio-Suit team to ask if they thought a
high-profile FL900 altitude record sailplane flight might help sell
their idea to NASA. They might be interested.

Note that the pressure atFL900 feet is about 0.25 PSI and the pressure
at FL400 feet is 2.72 PSI so if you were willing to breathe pure O2 at
a suit altitude of 40,000', the suit pressure differential need only
be 2.2 PSI.

Finally, even with a pressurized cockpit, wearing a pressure suit
backup makes a lot of sense.